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Mathcad Prime - subscript . and unit font 1

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271828

271828

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Mar 7, 2007
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I was a big Mathcad user for years, but went another direction in about 2016. I'm revisiting the possibility of using it again and have been playing with a Prime 6.0.0.0 version.

I've run into two irritants right off the bat. I've spent about 20 minutes trying to figure these out, so it seems like time to ask...

Did they eliminate the ability to use a . to define a subscript? Not an array index, but a regular dead subscript.

Is there a way to change the units font? I've never seen bold, blue, italic used in technical writing, so it looks terrible to me.

Thanks in advance.
 
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Thanks IRstuff.

Are you saying the two options for creating a dead subscript would be clicking the Subscript button at the top of the window (already found that) or hold down ctrl and press - ?

If I wanted to type F[sub]y[/sub], is it no longer possible to type F.y to make that happen?
 
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Thanks IRstuff. That really stinks. Hitting the . was extremely fast.

How about the units font? Any way to change that?
 
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271828,
Are you using Prime purposefully to torture yourself?

To long-time users of MC, it's like driving a Corolla after years of driving a Cadillac.

Go try using a percent % symbol that works. That was "the straw" for me.
 
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Sparweb, I used MC a lot between 2006 and about 2016-17. IIRC, v13 is the last one I used. I've gone another direction since then -- mostly Excel, Octave, and Smath. I'm pretty happy with Excel and Octave for specific applications, but not for Mathcad-like stuff, and I'm not willing to deal with Smath at this point. Thus, I started giving Mathcad another look.

If I understand correctly, MP is the only Mathcad option at this point, correct? The combination of subscription-based, the lack of . for subscript, and the idiotic font for the units are about enough to turn me away. Those are just what I found in the first 15 minutes. LOL. Who knows what other "goodies" are in MP.

I'm also looking at Maple. Their pricing model is different: one-time fee of $2990 for commercial use. That's 4-5 years worth of Mathcad subscription fees, so to me the Maple price is similar or maybe a little better. Any experience with Maple?
 
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Maple:
I reviewed it several years ago. I liked it a little bit, but overall wasn't impressed. It seems designed for writing scientific papers, not engineering reports. I think I posted to this forum section about my comparison at the time. Maybe you can find it with a search.

Agreed: Smath is like Mathcad but with the graphing and differential equations chopped off. Um yeah sure you can make those features work, but they are disappointing. And yes, there is also the Russian factor...

PTC made some kind of error when they bought the rights to Mathcad, either not purchasing all of the core components or neglecting them. It was "broken" for a while and they had to come out with Prime where they built their own solver engine from scratch IIRC. Some lucky people bought and kept copies of permanent licensed versions of Mathcad V13 and still use them, like me. We never upgraded so we never were subjected to that nonsense.

If you're open-minded to alternatives:
Calcpad
Blockpad

But really you do have everything you need if you are proficient with Excel and Octave. Do they work together in any way?
 
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Thanks for the insight on the MC history. Sounds very unfortunate. I might have a V13 CD. If I find it, I'll reinstall it.

I've used Excel to create hundreds (thousands?) of tools over the years. Octave is great for anything that needs programming. It sounds like that combo might be the best option.

I downloaded Calcpad and played with it some. It looked pretty good. It has the advantage of easy treatment of units, so I should probably give it a better shot.

I saw Blockpad in an internet search, but didn't look further. Sounds like it's worth checking out.
 
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Do you think they have identified a market opportunity for all the disgruntled Mathcad users?

maple1_hwfjct.jpg


maple_2_qsm4wy.jpg
 
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I've downloaded the trial version, and installed it without any trouble.
Playing around with it - not making too much progress.
The equation entry method requires more typing than I'm used to, often plus some find and click with the mouse.
Stuck in several places, but it may just be the learning curve, so I won't whine about them yet.
It comes with a manual, and slowly the method is being revealed as I read. RTFM.
 
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Since there were comments on Maple Flow in this thread, please let me know your questions. I am happy to share as much information as I can.

Samir Khan
Product Manager, Maple Flow
 
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Hi Peter

We have an internal tool that migrates the content of Mathcad 13, 14 and 15 to Flow format ( hints at this). We may release this tool to the public in the future.

Mathcad and Flow are quite different tools with a different language and different feature set, so the automatic conversion isn't 100% (unless you're only doing what's supported by the migration tool). Certain Mathcad specific features aren't supported, like plots, inline programs, range variables. Some of these features may have an alternative manual path for implementation in Flow.

I can let you know more offline - please contact me at Maplesoft (please use the info email at the bottom of and mark it for my attention)

Samir
 
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